“I am very dis­ap­point­ed by the NFL’s deci­sion to uphold the 4 game sus­pen­sion against me. I did noth­ing wrong, and no one in the Patriots orga­ni­za­tion did either. “Despite sub­mit­ting to hours of tes­ti­mo­ny over the past 6 months, it is dis­ap­point­ing that the Commissioner upheld my sus­pen­sion based upon a stan­dard that it was ‘prob­a­ble’ that I was ‘gen­er­al­ly aware’ of mis­con­duct. The fact is that nei­ther I, nor any equip­ment per­son, did any­thing of which we have been accused. He dis­missed my hours of tes­ti­mo­ny and it is dis­ap­point­ing that he found it unreliable.

“I also dis­agree with yes­ter­day’s nar­ra­tive sur­round­ing my cell­phone. I replaced my bro­ken Samsung phone with a new iPhone 6 AFTER my attor­neys made it clear to the NFL that my actu­al phone device would not be sub­ject­ed to inves­ti­ga­tion under ANY cir­cum­stances. As a mem­ber of a union, I was under no oblig­a­tion to set a new prece­dent going for­ward, nor was I made aware at any time dur­ing Mr. Wells inves­ti­ga­tion, that fail­ing to sub­ject my cell phone to inves­ti­ga­tion would result in ANY dis­ci­pline. “Most impor­tant­ly, I have nev­er writ­ten, texted, emailed to any­body at any­time, any­thing relat­ed to foot­ball air pres­sure before this issue was raised at the AFC Championship game in January. To sug­gest that I destroyed a phone to avoid giv­ing the NFL infor­ma­tion it request­ed is com­plete­ly wrong.

“To try and rec­on­cile the record and ful­ly coöper­ate with the inves­ti­ga­tion after I was dis­ci­plined in May, we turned over detailed pages of cell phone records and all of the emails that Mr. Wells request­ed. We even con­tact­ed the phone com­pa­ny to see if there was any pos­si­ble way we could retrieve any/​all of the actu­al text mes­sages from my old phone. In short, we exhaust­ed every pos­si­bil­i­ty to give the NFL every­thing we could and offered to go thru the iden­ti­ty for every text and phone call dur­ing the rel­e­vant time. Regardless, the NFL knows that Mr. Wells already had ALL rel­e­vant com­mu­ni­ca­tions with Patriots per­son­nel that either Mr. Wells saw or that I was ques­tioned about in my appeal hear­ing. There is no ‘smok­ing gun’ and this con­tro­ver­sy is man­u­fac­tured to dis­tract from the fact they have zero evi­dence of wrongdoing.

“I autho­rized the NFLPA to make a set­tle­ment offer to the NFL so that we could avoid going to court and put this incon­se­quen­tial issue behind us as we move for­ward into this sea­son. The dis­ci­pline was upheld with­out any counter offer. I respect the Commissioner’s author­i­ty, but he also has to respect the CBA and my rights as a pri­vate cit­i­zen. I will not allow my unfair dis­ci­pline to become a prece­dent for oth­er NFL play­ers with­out a fight. “Lastly, I am over­whelmed and hum­bled by the sup­port of fam­i­ly, friends and our fans who have sup­port­ed me since the false accu­sa­tions were made after the AFC Championship game. I look for­ward to the oppor­tu­ni­ty to resume play­ing with my team­mates and win­ning more games for the New England Patriots.”

If for one moment you accept that Tom Brady did noth­ing wrong you by default accept that just by coin­ci­dence Brady’s phone need­ed replac­ing right at the time an Investigation was in progress and just by the same coin­ci­dence his method­ol­o­gy of deal­ing with old cell phones is to imme­di­ate­ly destroy them.
If you accept that ‚you also have to believe he also thought it pru­dent at a time when he knew the League would need to look at text mes­sages and phone com­mu­ni­ca­tions he had with equip­ment per­son­nel that the thing to do is to destroy his phone.
If you are able to sus­pend real­i­ty and com­mon sense out of love for Brady then good luck.

Why would his Attorneys tell the League Brady’s cell-phone is off-lim­its? Let’s imag­ine for a minute that Tom Brady was the sub­ject of a crim­i­nal Investigation in which his cell-phone was required by Prosecuting Authorities, how suc­cess­ful would that argu­ment be ?
Does any­one believe state or Federal Authorities would bow to Tom Brady and his Lawyers that his cell-phone is off limits?
The answer is a resound­ing “NO”. Prosecutors would sim­ply sub­poe­na the phone records. I under­stand a per­son­’s desire to keep pri­vate con­ver­sa­tions , well pri­vate . However as adults we all know we live in an age in which noth­ing is real­ly pri­vate so if we can’t take respon­si­bil­i­ty for what we say or do on our devices, just don’t do or say it.

headshot_perryText mes­sages between Jim McNally (the Officials Locker Room atten­dant for the Patriots) and John Jastremski (an equip­ment assis­tant for the Patriots) played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the Wells inves­ti­ga­tion, it appears.

In the text mes­sages below, which appear ear­ly in the 243-page doc­u­ment, McNally and Jastremski go back and forth about releas­ing air from game foot­balls in the weeks and months pri­or to the AFC Championship game. The texts also dis­cuss what appears to be com­pen­sa­tion from Patriots quar­ter­back from Tom Brady for McNally, who called him­self “the defla­tor” before the sea­son even began.

In that text mes­sage, McNally also men­tioned some­thing about “going to espn” to shed light on what he, and pre­sum­ably Jastremski and Brady, knew was ille­gal accord­ing to NFL rules.

From the Wells report:

In the weeks and months before the AFC Championship Game, McNally peri­od­i­cal­ly exchanged text mes­sages with the Patriots equip­ment assis­tant pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for the prepa­ra­tion of the Patriots game balls, John Jastremski. In a num­ber of those text mes­sages, McNally and Jastremski dis­cussed the air pres­sure of Patriots game balls, Tom Brady‟s unhap­pi­ness with the infla­tion lev­el of Patriots game balls, Jastremski’s plan to pro­vide McNally with a “nee­dle” for use by McNally, and McNally‟s requests for “cash” and sneak­ers togeth­er with the “nee­dle” to be pro­vid­ed by Jastremski. A sports ball infla­tion nee­dle is a device that can be used to inflate a foot­ball (if attached to an air pump) or release air from a foot­ball (if insert­ed alone into a ball).

For exam­ple, on October 17, 2014, fol­low­ing a Thursday night game between the Patriots and the New York Jets dur­ing which Tom Brady com­plained angri­ly about the infla­tion lev­el of the game balls, McNally and Jastremski exchanged the fol­low­ing text messages:

McNally: Tom sucks…im going make that next ball a f***** balloon

Jastremski: Talked to him last night. He actu­al­ly brought you up and said you must have a lot of stress try­ing to get them done…

Jastremski: I told him it was. He was right though…

Jastremski: I checked some of the balls this morn… The refs f***** us…a few of then were at almost 16

Jastremski: They did­nt recheck then after they put air in them

McNally: F*** tom …16 is nothing…wait till next sunday

Jastremski: Omg! Spaz

On October 21, 2014, McNally and Jastremski exchanged the fol­low­ing text messages:

McNally: Make sure you blow up the ball to look like a rug­by ball so tom can get used to it before sunday

Jastremski: Omg

On October 23, 2014, three days before a Sunday game against the Chicago Bears, Jastremski and McNally exchanged the fol­low­ing messages:

Jastremski: Can‟t wait to give you your nee­dle this week 🙂

McNally: F*** tom.…make sure the pump is attached to the needle.….f***** water­mel­ons coming

Jastremski: So angry

McNally: The only thing deflat­ing sun..is his pass­ing rating

The next day, October 24, 2014, Jastremski and McNally exchanged the fol­low­ing messages:

Jastremski: I have a big nee­dle for u this week

McNally: Better be sur­round­ed by cash and newkicks.…or its a rug­by sunday

McNally: F*** tom

Jastremski: Maybe u will have some nice size 11s in ur locker

McNally: Tom must real­ly be work­ing your balls hard this week

On October 25, 2014, McNally and Jastremski exchanged the fol­low­ing messages:

Jastremski: Size 11?

Jastremski: 2 or 3X?

McNally: Tom must real­ly be on you

McNally: 11 0r 11 half.…..2x unless its tight fitting

Jastremski: Nah. Hasn‟t even men­tioned it, fig­ured u should get some­thing since he gives u nothing

On January 7, 2015, eleven days before the AFC Championship Game, McNally and Jastremski dis­cussed how McNally would have a “big auto­graph day” and receive items auto­graphed by Brady the fol­low­ing week­end, before the play­off game against the Baltimore Ravens. McNally and Jastremski exchanged the fol­low­ing text messages:

McNally: Remember to put a cou­ple sweet pig skins ready for tom to sign

Jastremski: U got it kid…big auto­graph day for you

McNally: Nice throw some kicks in and make it real special

Jastremski: It ur lucky. 11?

McNally: 11 or 11 and half kid

On January 10, 2015, imme­di­ate­ly pri­or to the game between the Patriots and the Ravens, in the Patriots equip­ment room with both Brady and Jastremski present, McNally received two foot­balls auto­graphed by Brady and also had Brady auto­graph a game-worn Patriots jer­sey that McNally pre­vi­ous­ly had obtained.

In addi­tion to the mes­sages described above, before the start of the 2014 – 15 sea­son, McNally referred to him­self as “the defla­tor” and stat­ed that he was “not going to espn……..yet.” On May 9, 2014, McNally and Jastremski exchanged the fol­low­ing text messages:

McNally: You working

Jastremski: Yup

McNally: Nice dude.…jimmy needs some kicks.…lets make a deal.….come on help the deflator

McNally: Chill bud­dy im just f***** with you .…im not going to espn.….…yet.
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